On the afternoon of Saturday, September 2, 2023, history was made on the streets of Chamonix, the French town beneath Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest mountain. A partisan crowd had reached fever pitch at the finish line of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), the world’s most famous ultra marathon.
Spirits were already soaring after Jim Walmsley had just become the first American man to win the famous race. Yet this incredible achievement was just a precursor to the arrival of the triumphant Courtney Dauwalter. She won the women’s race, crossing the line in 23 hours, 29 minutes and 14 seconds and in doing so became the first person in history to hold ultra running’s coveted Triple Crown. In a single, remarkable 70-day period, she’d won Western States, Hardrock and the UTMB – an unprecedented feat.
It’s an exciting time to be a fan of ultra running. In Courtney Dauwalter, we are witnessing greatness play out on the world stage. She continues to dominate, taking her sense of joy and love of running to smash through barriers, topple records and continue winning.
Here, one of our trail running exerts looks into the life and personality of one of running’s all-time greats.
Early and personal life
Dauwalter was born in 1985 in Hopkins, Minnesota. Her talent for endurance sports was evident at high school, where she competed in running and skiing events. In seventh grade, she was already competing for her school’s cross-country team. During this time, she’d often rise early during the winter months to Nordic ski.
Her training paid off – Dauwalter went on to win the state championship in cross-country skiing on four occasions, securing a scholarship to the University of Denver in Colorado. She credits her skiing coach for first introducing her to the 'pain cave' and how to cope with it. More on this later...
Dauwalter followed in her mother’s footsteps by becoming a teacher, teaching science to middle and high schoolers. Although she was already turning heads in the ultra running world before this, 2017 was the year Dauwalter quit teaching to focus on her passion for running, a decision that she’s described as ‘kinda crazy’ but one that she had to make to avoid living life thinking what if?
Daulwalter is married to Kevin Schmidt, who has supported her racing as her main crew member for many years. He’s known for a meticulous approach to planning, creating spreadsheets in order to aid her as well as possible during races. He’s also known for telling, occasionally terrible, jokes to lift her spirits at checkpoints.
Meet the expert
Alex is a qualified Mountain Leader and avid upland runner who follows the world of mountain ultra running with great interest. He's originally from Cumbria, home to the English Lake District, the spiritual home of fell running and loves nothing more than a fast-paced adventure in the hills.
Introduction to ultras
In the early 2010s, Dauwalter was living in Mississippi and turned her attention away from skiing and onto running. Her first ultra, the Prickly Peak 50k trail race in Texas, was in 2011 and it was soon followed by the Run Rabbit Run 50 Mile race in Colorado. This second ultra was what got her hooked, as she marvelled at the sense of community the race engendered, despite the challenging conditions that the weather gods had dealt its competitors that year.
She was back at Run Rabbit Run in 2012 to attempt her first 100-miler but ended up with the dreaded DNF. This was an important milestone in her running career, forcing her to reevaluate her approach and mindset. Watching other runners passing through the aid station, she realised that she wanted to be the kind of person who can run 100 miles. She signed up for her next 100-mile later than day. At the 2013 FANS 24-Hour Race in 2013, she completed the hallowed distance for the first time.
An ultra running sensation
From 2014 onwards, Dauwalter’s momentum became unstoppable, winning most of the races she entered. Experience and additional training were beginning to pay off. Of the nine ultras she entered in 2016, she either won or finished second.
2017 saw her take on some absolutely brutal challenges, such as the Moab 240, a 238-mile race through the dessert in Utah. She won the race outright, beating the fastest man by around 10 hours, despite having to deal with contact lens issues that led to temporary blindness! Her races weren’t all woodland trails, desert and mountain ridges – Dauwalter also set a then American women’s record of 155.391 miles in a 24-hour track race. By this point, she was living in Colorado, teaching biology full time. But all of that was about to change.
To focus on her running, she quit teaching and from here she went truly stratospheric. Her 2017 Run Rabbit Run 100-miler win is the stuff of legend, as she battled the temporary blindness of a corneal edema during the last 12 miles to cross the line bleeding and bruised in 20 hours, 38 minutes and 9 seconds. The resilience she showed to get across the finish line superbly illustrates her never-say-die attitude.
In 2018, she won the hugely competitive Western States 100 at the first time of asking, as well as the Ultra-Trail Mt Fuji. 2019 saw her first acquaintance with the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, where she won the woman’s race by around an hour. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Dauwalter was back in 2021 to set a then women’s course record of 22 hours, 30 minutes and 54 seconds.
A DNF at the Hardrock 100, a savage loop through the San Juan Mountains, would serve as fuel to her fire. She was back at Hardrock in 2022 to set a women’s course record. A feat she achieved again in 2023… And again in 2024, chipping her time down to 26 hours, 11 minutes and 49 seconds.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her victories and records, which are too numerous to list here. So, what are some of the traits that set Dauwalter so far ahead of her competition?
Shortneys, candy and the pain cave
Dauwalter deserves legend status based on her results alone but, as is often the case with sporting greatness, her remarkable character and personality make her even more of an inspiration to many. While undoubtedly fiercely motivated, Dauwalter doesn’t deprive herself of indulgencies that make her happy, such as drinking beer after a race or enjoying pizza and candy. Speaking to the Guardian in 2024, she said: “My fuel tank is based on joy. If I’m happy, the engine works way better.” She also trains based on feel, rather than heading out with a set goal or time in mind or working to a strict schedule. Typically, she runs around 100 miles a week, though she's not overly militant about it.
She’s renowned for the baggy, nineties-style basketball shorts she runs in, which have become known as Shortneys, thanks to her longtime sponsor Salomon. Dauwalter states that “comfort is key” and she always preferred long shorts for this reason.
She’s also spoke at length about her ability to dig in when the going gets almost unbearably tough, when she uses her “pain cave” mental exercise. She visualizes a space, a cave, in her head and systematically chips away at it, making it bigger, helping her to push on through adversity. Dauwalter has previously said that things can be painful and fun at the same time, indicating her take of the pain cave as a sort of type 2 fun.
Her approach to life, to challenges, to pain, to the mountains, is one of curiosity. It’s this insatiable curiosity that continues to drive her forward, propelling her to greatness. She also habitually sees things through, a behaviour deeply ingrained in her from a competitive childhood where, along with her brothers, she'd always see things through to the end.
The Triple Crown
2023 was a landmark year for Dauwalter, as she became the first person in history, male or female, to win the world’s three most iconic 100-mile races – Western States, Hardrock and the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc – in a single season. The only other person to have won all three in their entire career – let alone in a single year – is the legendary Kilian Jornet.
Dauwalter did it in style and within a single 70-day period. She set women’s records on both the Western States, by over an hour, and Hardrock races and she still holds these to this day – although she beat her own Hardrock record in 2024. Unsurprisingly, by the time she arrived on the start line of the UTMB, she was feeling the strain of her monumental efforts, so besting her 2021 record was always going to be unlikely. Nonetheless, she led the race from the very start and finished, cheered on by an immense crowd in Chamonix, over an hour ahead of the next woman.
At the time, she held the female records for all three races, though fellow American Katie Schide broke her UTMB record in 2024 by just over 20 minutes. Between them, the pair have won the last five UTMBs.
With the world seemingly at her feet and plenty of fuel left in the tank, watch this space to see just how high Dauwalter’s star will continue to rise. It’s going to be a joyous ride.
